diff --git a/Net/include/Poco/Net/SocketDefs.h b/Net/include/Poco/Net/SocketDefs.h
index c87ebd4c0..13546aa79 100644
--- a/Net/include/Poco/Net/SocketDefs.h
+++ b/Net/include/Poco/Net/SocketDefs.h
@@ -313,4 +313,16 @@ extern char *if_indextoname (unsigned int __ifindex, char *__ifname) __THROW;
 #define INADDR_MAX_LOCAL_GROUP 0xe00000ff
 #endif
 
+
+#if defined(POCO_ARCH_BIG_ENDIAN)
+	#define poco_ntoh_16(x) (x)
+	#define poco_ntoh_32(x) (x)
+#else
+	#define poco_ntoh_16(x) \
+		((((x) >> 8) & 0x00ff) | (((x) << 8) & 0xff00))
+	#define poco_ntoh_32(x) \
+		((((x) >> 24) & 0x000000ff) | (((x) >> 8) & 0x0000ff00) | (((x) << 8) & 0x00ff0000) | (((x) << 24) & 0xff000000))
+#endif
+
+
 #endif // Net_SocketDefs_INCLUDED
diff --git a/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.cpp b/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.cpp
index baceffde6..c76d708a3 100644
--- a/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.cpp
+++ b/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.cpp
@@ -630,6 +630,15 @@ void IPAddressTest::testRelationals6()
 }
 
 
+void IPAddressTest::testByteOrderMacros()
+{
+	Poco::UInt16 a16 = 0xDEAD;
+	assert (poco_ntoh_16(a16) == ntohs(a16));
+	Poco::UInt32 a32 = 0xDEADBEEF;
+	assert (poco_ntoh_32(a32) == ntohl(a32));
+}
+
+
 void IPAddressTest::setUp()
 {
 }
@@ -658,6 +667,7 @@ CppUnit::Test* IPAddressTest::suite()
 	CppUnit_addTest(pSuite, IPAddressTest, testPrefixCons);
 	CppUnit_addTest(pSuite, IPAddressTest, testPrefixLen);
 	CppUnit_addTest(pSuite, IPAddressTest, testOperators);
+	CppUnit_addTest(pSuite, IPAddressTest, testByteOrderMacros);
 
 	return pSuite;
 }
diff --git a/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.h b/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.h
index d3dde03a9..f8fd675ca 100644
--- a/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.h
+++ b/Net/testsuite/src/IPAddressTest.h
@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@ public:
 	void testPrefixCons();
 	void testPrefixLen();
 	void testOperators();
-	
+	void testByteOrderMacros();
+
 	void setUp();
 	void tearDown();